BASHAR ASSAD

The opening ceremony of the Asian Games in China offered all the staples of a major international sports event.

China and Syria have announced the formation of a strategic partnership as Chinese leader Xi Jinping kicked off a series of diplomatic meetings ahead of the upcoming Asian Games.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has arrived in China on his first visit to the country since the start of Syria’s 12-year conflict.

A war monitoring group says that dozens of Syrians who fled war at home are among the thousands killed and missing in the deadly flooding in Libya.

A U.S.-backed Syrian force has declared its operations in eastern Syria completed after almost two weeks of fighting with local tribesmen left dozens of people dead.

The weeklong clashes between rival U.S.-backed militias in eastern Syria point to dangerous seams in the coalition that has kept a lid on the defeated Islamic State group for years.

Anti-government protests in southern Syria have entered their second week, with demonstrators waving the colorful flag of the minority Druze community, burning banners of President Bashar Assad, and at one point raiding several offices of his ruling party.

The Russian authorities have announced an endeavor to boost production of movies glorifying Moscow’s actions in Ukraine this year.

Three Republican members of the U.S. Congress have made a quick trip into opposition-held northwest Syria in the first known visit to the war-torn country by American lawmakers in six years.

Yevgeny Prigozhin made his name as the profane and brutal mercenary boss who mounted an armed rebellion that was the most severe and shocking challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

A decade after a sarin gas attack killed hundreds and left thousands hurt in a Syrian suburb near the capital of Damascus, survivors say there has been no accountability for that attack or for other atrocities committed during the country's brutal conflict.

Syrian opposition activists say protests have broken out in two government-held provinces in the south amid widespread anger over increasing prices, the crash of the Syrian pound and the dwindling purchasing power of many people in the war-torn country.

Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad has doubled public sector wages and pensions as the war-torn country’s national currency spiraled further downwards, reaching a new low for the year.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has slammed Turkey and blamed Ankara for the uptick in violence in his war-torn country.

The United Nations has announced that an agreement has been reached with Syria to reopen the main border crossing from Turkey to its rebel-held northwest for six months.

The head of a leading aid group says an impasse at the United Nations over a border crossing with Syria’s last rebel-held enclave is endangering 4.1 million Syrians living there.

The U.S. says a Russian fighter jet fired flares and struck another American drone over Syrian airspace on Wednesday, continuing a string of harassing maneuvers that have ratcheted up tensions between the global powers.

As Middle East countries begin to restore relations with Syrian President Bashar Assad, many Syrian refugees who fled civil war fear they will be forced to return to their homeland.

The United Nations agency responsible for overseeing humanitarian aid has described conditions placed by the Syrian government on aid deliveries from Turkey to northwest Syria as “unacceptable.”.

The United Nations Security Council's failure to renew the critical flow of international aid from Turkey into opposition-held northwestern Syria has rattled Syrians and social workers.

The U.N. Security Council has failed to approve either of two rival resolutions authorizing the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria’s rebel-held northwest from neighboring Turkey, officially ending the U.N. cross-border operation which had been vital to helping 4.1 million people.

The delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria’s rebel-held northwest from neighboring Turkey is virtually certain to get a green light to continue from the U.N. Security Council.

Syria’s Information Ministry has revoked the BBC’s media accreditation over alleged bias.

A convoy carrying U.N. aid has entered Syria's last rebel-held enclave from government-held territory, the first such shipment to cross battle lines since February's deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria.

Donor nations from across the globe are scrambling to find billions in dollars to extend their aid commitment to millions of Syrians who have been battered by hunger, poverty, civil war and a massive earthquake.

Aid agencies will struggle to draw the world’s attention back to Syria at an annual donor conference hosted by the European Union in Brussels for humanitarian aid to Syrians.

Arab leaders have been joined by Syrian President Bashar Assad for the first time in more than a decade at an annual Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia.

A U.S. Navy commander says there is “no significant change” in the conduct of Russian aircraft and warships toward Western naval and air assets in the eastern Mediterranean as Moscow’s war in Ukraine grinds on.

Arab foreign ministers in Saudi Arabia have welcomed Syria back to the Arab League, and called for a cease-fire in conflict-hit Sudan ahead of the organization's annual summit taking place in the kingdom.

Syria’s embattled President Bashar Assad has received an invitation to attend the upcoming COP28 climate talks in Dubai later this year, even as the yearslong war in his country over his rule grinds on.

The United States and Britain are voicing dissatisfaction with the weekend decision by the Arab League to re-instate Syria as a member.

Airstrikes over southern Syria have killed one of the country’s most well-known drug dealers, an opposition war monitor and a pro-government radio station reported.

The Arab League has agreed to reinstate Syria, ending a 12-year suspension.

Officials say diplomats from Arab nations are planning an emergency meeting in Cairo over the weekend about fighting in Sudan and Syria's potential return to the Arab League.

A Palestinian official says Iran’s president has met with senior Palestinian officials in Damascus and expressed his country’s support to them.

The presidents of Iran and Syria have signed a series of long-term trade agreements in Damascus to bolster economic ties between the two allies.

Regional leaders are meeting in Jordan to discuss Syria’s return to the Arab fold and a Jordanian proposal to reach a “political solution” to the Syrian conflict.

Iran’s foreign minister says Tehran wants Lebanon's rivals to reach an agreement to elect a new president in the crisis-hit country that has been without a head of state October.

Russia’s defense minister has hosted his counterparts from Iran, Syria and Turkey for talks as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to help broker a rapprochement between the Turkish and Syrian governments.

Syria’s chief diplomat is on a visit to Algeria and Tunisia as part of efforts to revive diplomatic relationships in the Arab world.

After meeting in Saudi Arabia to discuss Syria’s political fate, a group of regional leaders promised to continue talks to reach a political solution to the Syrian conflict.

Syria and Saudi Arabia say they have started procedures to reopen embassies and resume flights between the two countries for the first time in more than a decade.

Senior diplomats from Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iran have wrapped up two days of talks in Moscow.

Saudi Arabia is in talks with Syria to reopen its embassy in the war-torn nation for the first time in a decade.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hosted Syrian leader Bashar Assad for talks in the Kremlin that focused on rebuilding Syria after a devastating civil war and efforts to stabilize the region.

Syria's state news agency says Israeli missiles have targeted a western city wounding three soldiers.

News of the rapprochement between long-time regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran sent shock waves through the Middle East and dealt a symbolic blow to Israel's prime minister.

A deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia to resume diplomatic ties has wide-reaching effects across the Middle East and beyond, and reduces the chance of armed conflict between regional rivals.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has raised the number of fatalities in Turkey from the magnitude 7.8 earthquake to 43,556.

Syrian state media says that Israeli airstrikes have targeted a residential neighborhood in central Damascus.

The United Nations chief has launched a $397 million appeal to help nearly 5 million survivors of last week’s devastating earthquake in rebel-held northwest Syria who have received very little assistance.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that more than 35,000 people have died in Turkey as a result of last week’s earthquakes, making it the deadliest such disaster since the country’s founding 100 years ago.

The United Nations says Syria’s president has agreed to open two new crossing points from Turkey to the country’s rebel-held northwest to deliver desperately needed aid and equipment for millions of earthquake victims.

Humanitarian groups working in southern Turkey and northern Syria warn that Monday’s earthquake will have a “long tail.”.

Rescue teams using thermal cameras to locate signs of life are continuing to pull survivors out of mounds of rubble, five days after a major earthquake struck a sprawling border region of Turkey and Syria.

This week's deadly quake has potentially displaced millions of people in war-torn Syria, many of them for the second time.

Experts say Syria’s embattled President Bashar Assad may try to use this week’s deadly earthquake as an opportunity to ease his country’s international isolation.

The United Nations has pledged a $25 million grant for people in earthquake-stricken areas of Syria.

More than a dozen additional earthquake survivors have been pulled from the rubble alive in Turkey.

A small convoy has crossed from Turkey into Syria’s rebel-held northwest with desperately needed medicines, blankets, tents and U.N. shelter kits, the first aid to reach the enclave, three days after the devastating earthquake struck the region, killing thousands.

The death toll from a powerful earthquake that struck in Turkey and Syria has soared above 7,700 people.

Syria has dismissed the global chemical weapons watchdog's statement that said investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” Syria’s air force dropped two cylinders of chlorine gas in 2018 on the rebel-held town of Douma.

Fierce battles in eastern Ukraine have thrown a new spotlight on a private Russian military group led by a rogue millionaire with longtime links to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

An investigation by the global chemical weapons watchdog established there are “reasonable grounds to believe” Syria’s air force dropped two cylinders containing chlorine gas on the city of Douma in April 2018, killing 43 people.

The U.S. team’s victory over Iran at the World Cup was closely watched across the Middle East.

This weekend's Turkish airstrikes targeting Kurdish fighters in northern Syria also threaten to stoke tensions with the Syrian government.

A leading human rights group says hundreds of Syrian men and boys have been detained, beaten and forcibly returned to their country by Turkish authorities over a six-month period.

Gen. Sergei Surovikin has become the face of Russia’s new military strategy in Ukraine, which includes unleashing a barrage of strikes against the country's infrastructure.

The Iranian-made drones that Russia sent slamming into central Kyiv this week are complicating Israel's balancing act between Russia and the West.

Officials in Europe praised the awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to activists standing up for human rights and democracy in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, but authorities in Belarus are scorning the move.

Lebanon's parliament has failed to elect a president, just weeks before incumbent President Michel Aoun's six-year term comes to an end.

Some of the West’s fiercest critics have made their case in the closing hours of the U.N. General Assembly meeting of world leaders.

Plans by news organizations that have been in place for years — even decades — to cover the death of Queen Elizabeth II were triggered and tested when the event took place.

Syria's state-run news agency reports that an Israeli strike has hit Damascus International Airport and other areas south of the Syrian capital, killing five soldiers.

Syria's transport ministry says the international airport in Aleppo will resume work days after the facility was put out of commission by an Israeli missile attack.

Forty years since it was founded, Lebanon's Hezbollah has transformed from a ragtag organization to the largest and most heavily armed militant group in the Middle East.

Israel has launched airstrikes targeting Syria's Aleppo International Airport.

Satellite imagery showed widespread destruction at a giant military facility in western Syria targeted in a recent Israeli airstrike.

A Syrian opposition war monitor and a paramedic group say a rocket attack on a crowded market in a town held by Turkey-backed opposition fighters killed 15 people and wounded dozens.

The stabbing of author Salman Rushdie has laid bare divisions in Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim community.

Syria has denied it is holding U.S. journalist Austin Tice or other Americans, a week after President Joe Biden accused the Syrian government of holding him.

The first shipment of grain to leave Ukraine under a wartime deal appears to have ended up in Syria — even as Damascus remains a close ally of Moscow.

The Lebanese government’s plan to start deporting Syrian refugees has sent waves of fear through vulnerable communities already struggling to survive in their host country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin won staunch support from Iran for his country’s military campaign in Ukraine, with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei saying the West opposes an “independent and strong” Russia.

Backed into a corner by the West, Iran is ramping up uranium enrichment, clamping down on dissent over its worsening economy and deepening ties with Moscow.

The U.N. Security Council has approved a resolution extending humanitarian aid deliveries to 4.1 million people in Syria’s rebel-held northwest for just 6 months in a victory for Russia.

The U.N. Security Council has failed to extend humanitarian aid deliveries to 4.1 million Syrians in the rebel-held northwest from Turkey after Russia vetoed a resolution for a year-long extension and got insufficient support for its resolution for a six-month extension.

The U.N. Security Council has delayed an expected vote on extending humanitarian aid deliveries to rebel-held northwest Syria from Turkey after failing to reach a compromise.

Syrians in the last major rebel stronghold of the war-torn country are living in fear of the effects of Russia closing down the only border crossing into the northwestern province of Idlib.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is certain to dominate an upcoming NATO summit in Madrid.

A new ambassador from Bahrain has formally taken up his post in Syria, the country’s first full diplomatic mission there in more than a decade as Damascus continues to improve its relations with Gulf Arab states.

Residents in northern Syria are bracing for a new fight since Turkey's president threatened a major military operation to push back Syrian Kurdish fighters and create a long sought-after buffer zone in the border area.

Final results in Lebanon's weekend parliamentary elections show that the militant Hezbollah group and its allies have lost the majority of parliament seats they had held since 2018.

The Siyam family believed for many years that their adult son was being held at a government prison after he went missing at a checkpoint nearly a decade ago.

The deeply divisive issue of the militant Hezbollah group's weapons has been at the center of the upcoming vote for a new 128-member parliament in Lebanon.

Iranian media says Syrian President Bashar Assad was in Tehran for a rare visit to meet Iranian leaders.

President Joe Biden has met with the parents of American journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria 10 years ago.

Russia says that Turkey gave it advance notice before moving to bar Russian planes from flying to Syria over its territory.

Russia’s new offensive in eastern Ukraine reflects Moscow’s hope to reverse its battlefield fortunes after a catastrophic seven weeks of war.

The next chapter of the war in Ukraine could see Russia bringing in greater numbers of battle-hardened fighters from Syria, observers say.